Ratings

Video Pinball is an arcade game released in 1978. It was ported to the Atari 2600.

Gameplay

Both are video versions of a classic pinball game. In the arcade version, the playfield is mounted to the top of a cabinet and its image is reflected off of a mirror. A video pinball is then displayed onto the image of the playfield.

The Atari 2600 version's playfield is a rather boxy-shaped pinball table complete with bumpers, spinners, targets, and rollovers. Each player starts with three balls. Every time you hit the
ATARI rollover four times, you get an extra ball. The extra
ball is indicated by a large X at the bottom of the screen.
Playing VIDEO PINBALL requires skillful control of the flippers
which are located at the bottom, center of the screen. When
the ball drops to the bottom of the screen, you send it back
into the playfield by using the flippers. The flippers are
controlled with your Joystick Controller. It's your job to
guide the ball within the playfield hitting bumpers, spinners,
targets, and rollovers to score points.

Use your Joystick Controllers to "nudge" the ball, but don't
"nudge" too much, or you'll cause a "tilt". If you "tilt" the
game, your ball scores no more points and any extra balls are
lost.